


Harry Potter head canons and how things work

by Chelonie



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Accidental Magic Reversal Squad, Broomsticks, Don't copy to other sites, Fanon, Fidelius Charms, Gen, Head-Canon, Other, Potter Family, Wands, Writer's resource, firebolt - Freeform
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-12-24
Updated: 2020-01-21
Packaged: 2021-02-26 00:02:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 9
Words: 3,657
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21934171
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Chelonie/pseuds/Chelonie
Summary: I decided to put my head canons and how my HP fanon universe works all in one place. As always, my ideas are available for other fanfic writers to borrow. All I ask is that text not be copied wholesale or Original Characters used without permission.
Comments: 30
Kudos: 54





	1. Fidelius

The Fidelius is such a useful defensive measure that there must be a reason it isn't more common. Why wouldn't all the horcruxes be hidden under them? Why wouldn't all the Order safehouses be under them? Here are some rules that I think make sense.

  1. The Fidelius hides the Secret inside the Soul of a Secret Keeper. One Soul can hold one Secret. If Dumbledore is holding the Secret for Grimmauld Place, he cannot be Secret Keeper for any other place.
  2. This is Soul Magic. Though it's called the Fidelius "Charm", it can only be done by someone who has studied magics that are not legal in Wix Britain. It's not illegal to cast the Fidelius (because the Wizengamot doesn't understand it enough to have specifically disallowed it, and because the name 'Charm' is misleading), but to learn enough magic to be able to do so, you'll need to study from books that have been illegal in Wix Britain for a long time. People who can cast it include Dumbledore (the books weren't illegal when he first read them), Bill Weasley (he studied them outside Wix Britain), Voldemort (he doesn't give a shit about the law). Basically you need to be old, dark, or well travelled.
  3. Because it is Soul Magic, you can't hold a Secret if you have a damaged soul. Death Eaters, who have a brand on their soul, need not apply. Harry can't be a Secret Keeper until the horcrux is removed. Voldemort can't be a Secret Keeper unless he somehow manages to fully repair his to his pre-horcrux state. (In my head-canon, Peter was an un-marked Death Eater until after Voldemort got his first homonculus body. He would have been a poor spy if his friends would have noticed him suddenly refusing to roll up his sleeves in hot weather. But once he was Voldemort's ONLY follower, he wanted him branded and marked.)



(Also, a mistake in canon: Shell Cottage was under Fidelius with Bill as the Secret Keeper - but Ron tells Dobby where it is, so he can take the prisoners there at the rescue from Malfoy Manor. Ron shouldn't have been able to speak about it, since he wasn't the Secret Keeper!)


	2. The Pottery

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Some Potter family history

The Potters came from a family of potters. When they stopped doing it as their profession, it was still passed down as a craft, from parent to child, until James Potter died before he could teach Harry how to work with clay.

This meant that he made crappy magical pottery gifts for all his friends. And Lily Evans. Especially Lily Evans.

Singing teapots.

Ever-filling shot glasses.

Hand-made vases, every time he got Lily flowers.

Little clay wolves and rats and dogs and stags to run across the table.

Soap dishes and wand holders and picture frames and chess pieces.

The Potters live in a large sprawling house called the Pottery, with a courtyard in the centre that holds the outdoor magical kiln, surrounded by several layers of warding that provide the dual purpose of protecting the house from fire and creating a ritual space within the courtyard. All of the Potter rituals are done outdoors, next to the kiln.

The Potter's god is Lady Fortuna, the goddess of extreme luck. 

Their motto is Per Virtutem Caritatis - Through Courage and Love. (The saying on the Potter tombstone, 'The Last Enemy That Shall Be Destroy Is Death' is from the Peverells, who were famous for being necromancers. Those words were chosen by Dumbledore.)

After James and Lily got married, they moved into the Pottery with Charlus and Dorea (this is my headcanon - I dislike Fleamont and Euphemia, and I like Harry being a Black descendent). However, there was a dragonpox epidemic that was particularly virulent, and this was before the vaccine. Charlus was first to catch it, and Lily was forced to move out, having recently fallen pregnant. Dorea and James also caught it. James recovered. His parents didn't. 

Lily wasn't even able to come to the funeral with James. He couldn't bear to go back to the house where his parents had died. Sirius and Peter and Bathilda Bagshot, along with a few other family friends who had previously been exposed to the virus, went to the Pottery and packed up. James and Lily bought a small cottage - 7 Blackbird Lane in Godric's Hollow - and lived there until their deaths.

Harry didn't even know that the Pottery was his, waiting in stasis for him, until... (depends on the fic as to when he learns about his inheritance). 


	3. Magical Puberty and Sex Ed

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> How are magical babbies made?

I refuse to believe that you can have all of a magical country's teenagers in one building for 10 months of the year and not end up with a teen pregnancy problem that would put the US to shame. If it was left to Heads of Houses, the Gryffindors would have learnt nothing, because McG was never there for them. If left to Pomfrey, then you have one person teaching every teenager in the country while curing all their Quidditch injuries and potion mishaps.

So, I'm introducing a new class, that goes through all 7 years. 

Right now, my tentative name for the class is "Personal Responsibility" which is a terrible name, but then, committees come up with terrible names.

It would start with Bodies and Health - what to expect through puberty, and cover both sexes so that boys know about periods and girls know what erections are. 

There are magical charms to deal with periods, as well as potions. There are ways to stop periods entirely, but there is also special witch's magic that relies on the cycle. The Slytherins and the Dark families are more aware of it, as Dumbledore is a bachelor and thinks blood magic is questionable. Stupid old goat. (The whisper network spreads information to the muggleborns about witch's magic. Blood matters, as the purebloods say, and no blood is more binding than women's blood. The wizards aren't aware of just how much the witches do right under their noses.)

As the students get older, they learn to cast contraceptive charms and brew contraceptive potions. They also learn to care for children who are displaying accidental magic (with adults nearby, to intervene). (This program is how Molly Weasley got some respite time when she was raising her children.)

They learn how to end a pregnancy. Not every witch is prepared for the magical ordeal of building a person. 

They learn about consent, and roleplay scenarios. It's awkward and embarrassing. They learn to dance. They learn courtship rituals. They write essays and stage debates about whether virginity is a social construct, or a magical event. 

They learn basic household charms - probably the magic they'll use the most after school, though they don't realise it.

They attend the Walpurgis Night revels, which are little more than orgies. 

The prefects are trained in how to recognise sexual assault and domestic violence and magical coercion by spells or potions. (A few happen anyway - they always do. There are always people who believe they are entitled to person they desire.)

The best the overworked staff can hope for is that their students graduate healthy, safe, and at least a little bit prepared to navigate adult relationships.


	4. Starter Wands

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Why only three wand cores?

Ollivander uses unicorn hair, dragon heartstring, and phoenix feathers only?

My headcanon is that these three cores are especially friendly for children, who are just starting to control their magic. But that if you are an adult who needs a new wand, you will be taken to a different room at Ollivanders, where there are wands with more woods and cores available - cores that are more finicky or temperamental. Wands you wouldn't put in the hand of an eleven year old who has never cast a single lumos and still has to go through puberty. 


	5. Brooms, Quidditch, and the Firebolt Fiasco

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> What sort of brooms are available in Wix Britain?

So let's talk brooms.

  * Baby's first broom - Harry received one for his first birthday, allowed him to terrorise the cat, and fly at one foot off the ground  
  

  * Junior or Starter brooms - brooms for pre-Hogwarts kids - parents can charm a maximum height and speed, may have safety features such as auto-catch and feather-fall in the more up-market versions.  
  

  * Basic brooms - These are the brooms every family will have in their closet or broomshed, or that Hogwarts has to teach with. They aren't terribly fast or manoeuvrable, but they'll get you from one place to another, and they'll work for a pick up game of Quidditch.  
  

  * Customised brooms - If you want a good broom, but you don't have a lot of money, you start with a Basic, and you start customising it to your own needs. Replacing tail twigs, carving runes, changing out the stirrups or the seat cushioning charms - all of these things can turn a boring broom into a great broom. This is what the Weasleys do, and how they can be great Quidditch players despite not having the money for expensive brooms. If you are lucky, you'll find a good quality antique in a vault sale or secondhand shop and be able to restore it - either to sell it on (all of the Weasleys have made extra money this way) or to have a great broom of your own.  
  

  * Family brooms - You have kids, and you need to travel. A family broom is wide and broad, with seats for extra passengers, with sticking charms and safety features. They've mostly gone out of popularity, because most people would just take the floo network or the Knight Bus rather than buy an expensive broom that will only get a few years worth of use before their kids are old enough to fly on their own.  
  

  * Quidditch Brooms - sometimes inaccuractly called Racing Brooms - Brooms specialised for the sport of Quidditch. Different positions require different broom abilities, though most of the top market lines such as Comet, Cleansweep, and Nimbus have settings for each position, with the top brooms of each line having the ability for the rider to customise further through an enchanted display. (Five Slytherin players received a Nimbus 2001 from Lucius Malfoy. Within a month, each broom would have felt different as the rider had it adjusted to their position, weight, flight style, etc.
  * Touring Brooms - These are brooms designed for people who like to fly in comfort. They may have physical seats instead of cushioning charms and handlebars so that you ride it sitting up instead of leaning forward. If you want to fly so you can see the countryside, rather than flying for speed and excitement, this might be more your thing. Also available are bolt on seats and handlebars to convert standard brooms to Touring Brooms for people who can't afford the latter, or who don't think they'll use a Touring Broom often enough to be worth the expense and space.  
  

  * Racing Brooms - For the sport of Broom Racing - this style of broom sometimes overlaps with brooms designed for Seekers, though the sport can involve long distance cross country racing that overlaps a bit with Touring Brooms
  * Broom Surfing - There are people who like to ride their brooms standing up, like surfboards. You can theoretically do this with any broom, but there are standing brooms that are customised for it.   
  

  * Professional Brooms - There are various professions that use specialised brooms. The Accidental Magic Reversal Squad have very fast brooms with shrinking charms, Notice Me Not's, a display of the current Apparition Coordinates (think GPS location) for wherever they are at all times, and a magic crystal embedded with Wireless voice transmission to the other members of the team (police radio). The Auror class brooms are more paranoid, as they were afraid the coordinate tracking could be a security leak, since they think brooms can be stolen too easily. But they have a lot of spell blocking enchantments, as well as a stabilisation option you can use if you are trying to cast while flying (though it does make it harder to dodge, so most Aurors don't bother). Various other professions have their own speciality brooms - if there are enough of them to be worth it. Even if there aren't enough of a particular profession to market a broom to, there will be 'Broom Settings' that will be published (i.e. - Make the Cleansweep 7 the perfect Bicorn herder's broom by using these settings) in professional journals.
  * Artisanal Brooms - A broom made by a Broommaking Master from start to finish, with no input by another person. Most broom workshops have Apprentices on one task, Journeymen on another, and the Masters doing the final enchanting that allows a broom to fly. But an Artisanal Workshop will have a Master or Mistress designing and building brooms with their own hands. They may also design and enchant commercial brooms that they allow their apprentices and journeymen to assist with, but these brooms will sell for far far less than the Artisal brooms done with the Master's own hands.  
  
This is where the **Firebolt** comes in.



The Firebolt is the product of the Bolt Company, each one of 49 brooms hand built and enchanted by Eliza Bolt. She is a witch older than Dumbledore who lost her muggleborn wife Celeste and the use of her legs in 1981 before Voldemort's first defeat. She travels in a broom/chair combination that she enchanted herself. (See [Ginny Weasley and the Dementors of Azkaban](https://archiveofourown.org/works/18442058/chapters/47521255) for a cameo by Eliza Bolt.)

Canon: Harry and his friends drooled over the new Firebolt, but none of them seemed to have considered buying it. Not even spoiled rich kid Malfoy got a Firebolt for his birthday or Christmas.

Canon: The entire Irish team bought Firebolts, but that was in the lead-up to a successful World Cup win. No doubt their backers wouldn't have provided the brooms if they hadn't considered the team to be a worthwhile investment.

Canon: Sirius Black even said the Firebolt was for 13 years worth of birthday and Christmas presents, and he would have bought Harry the moon if he'd asked for it.

A Firebolt is about as expensive as a small house, and it was a **really big deal** that a Hogwarts student managed to get one - even if that student was Harry Potter! You can imagine that Malfoy whined to his Dad for one for months afterwards, and his Dad just said, 'Shut it, Draco. You're spoiled, but not _that_ spoiled.' 

The Firebolt is not the only artisanal broom available. It's simply the one that became famous at Hogwarts due to

  1. The Irish team buying them
  2. The Display at Quality Quidditch, which is probably the first time any of the school kids had seen an artisanal broom, unless Malfoy or another of the rich kids had seen it on a wall at some rich twat's house.
  3. Harry Potter being gifted a Firebolt for Christmas




	6. How badarse is the Accidental Magical Reversal Squad

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Seriously, they have to be tougher than Aurors and Hit-Wizards combined!

So... as I was writing the broom thing, I realised... How badarse are the Accidental Magical Reversal Squad?

They'd have to be, considering all the bad, weird and bat-shit-crazy things they've probly encountered. Maybe a more elite part of the DMLE than Aurors or Hit Wizards? Many also might have major Healer's training too and 1 or 2 Mind Healers on call

They have to be prepared to arrive in the middle of muggles at the drop of a hat, be prepared to fix Merlin knows what, provide excuses that don't break the Statute, pose as muggle cops or firefighters or government officials, possibly explain magic to parents for the first time, deal with hostile muggles, deal with hostile magicals (because not all the Accidental Magic will be underage- imagine Xeno trying to explain to them that it was a Crumple Horned Snorkak that exploded Diagon Alley, not an Erumpent Horn) Healer's training. Dealing with scared children - both magical and muggle.

Fixing splinches. Deflating Aunt Marge, Obliviations, Liaising with the Muggles who know (they probably know all of the governmental officials who are allowed to know, or already know due to family) They probably get deputised when Newt Scamander happens all over the place, because damn you, Newt, those animals do not belong in muggle spaces! This is one ministry department where Muggleborns get unofficial preferential hiring. Purebloods simply cannot hack it.

Also, if you are not an absolutely perfect at Apparition, do not apply. You need to be fast, accurate, and able to go long distances with simple coordinates from the Accidental Magic Map. Quiet is good, but not essential. What matters is distance and speed. Being able to pop into the scene of the Accident quickly could mean the difference between a few Obliviated muggles and a five year old muggleborn who just accidentally orphaned themselves. Or worse, killed themselves as well.

(Fun fact: If you haven't been able to see thestrals before you've started, you will before your first year is out. This is a bloody job.)

Rookie Aurors don't understand why Veteran Aurors sit with Veteran Reversers in the Ministry Cafeteria. Rookie Aurors don't understand the bond of blood between the professions.

If they last in the job, they will. They'll cross paths enough to understand that they are both of a different class than the paper pushers or the money handlers or the influence peddlers in the Ministry. They are the Reversal Squad. And they are the most badarse department in the Ministry.


	7. Small Head Canons (not worth a full chapter)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This chapter will just be small snippets, that will be added to as things occur to me.

  * Barty Jr broke free of the Imperious at the World Cup because of the mass Veela allure. It briefly controlled his mind, but when it ended, his mind was free for the first time in years.  
  

  * The DADA curse was in the Hogwarts horcrux. (Which, btw, should have been in the Chamber of Secrets.)  
  

  * You must have a Dark Mark in order to cast _Morsmordre_. Since no one who isn't a Death Eater has ever tried this, it isn't really known to law enforcement.   
  

  * The TriWizard Tournament cup was used rather than handing Harry a random portkey in Hogsmeade because the Blood of an Enemy would be stronger if the enemy had overcome many ritual obstacles  
  

  * Fleur Delacour did NOT come in last place in every task, nor did she become a sullen housewife after she graduated. I refuse to believe this. Bad writing, JKR!  
  

  * Only someone skilled in the Mind Arts can prepare a memory for extraction for use in a Penseive. They can do this for their own memories, or go into the mind of another and collect a memory using Legilimency. However, this method is not foolproof. It is too easy for someone to 'remember' a different person holding the wand that cursed them, or different words being said in a confession, so Penseive memories cannot be entered into evidence in court. They can, however, be used as part of an investigation to help the DMLE decide where to go to collect further evidence.  
  

  * Barty Jr always escapes at the end of the Triwizard. He knows how to make portkeys. There is no way he doesn't go to his Master's side!  
  

  * Part-veelas can still make fireballs and grow wings. They usually can't produce enough lift to fly, but can use their wings to glide if they are falling.




	8. Future things to write about

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Upcoming things I want to write about.

  * House elves (Why is Dobby broken?)
  * How does the government work? Lordships or not?
  * How rich is Harry?
  * Werewolves - soulless monsters or nerdy chocolate loving Professors? Discuss!
  * What does the rest of the world think of Wix Britain?
  * Dark and Light magic
  * Dark and Light politics
  * How are Half-Giants made?
  * Ron hated school and fought with Hermione because he was dyslexic
  * Memories, penseives, and forensic evidence (or why memories can't be used in court proceedings)
  * The Marauders, the animagus transformation, and why Peter Pettigrew wasn't a weak wizard (even if he was a traitor)
  * Reverse Boggarts and Reverse Dementors (they are still predators, they just make you feel good)
  * Occlumency, the Mind Arts, and why Harry was never going to be an Occlumens 
  * Sex Magic




	9. Getting to Kings Cross

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Why everyone doesn't floo to Kings Cross ~~(besides the fact that train stations don't have fireplaces)~~ (My English husband informs me that many old train stations have fireplaces in out of the way waiting rooms that may not have been bricked up. So I have been corrected! Still, flooing with a trunk - not advised!)

An upcoming scene snippet from "Crowned With Night" that explains why everyone doesn't floo into London to catch the Hogwarts Express. I can only imagine that the Knight Bus is ridiculously overcrowded on Sept 1. It might be a 7 layer bus on that day, just to fit everyone in.

“I wish we could have taken the floo,” Ron said.

“You can’t take trunks through the floo,” George said. Hadrian thought it was George. “Imagine being spun about with a trunk hitting you every time around. You’d come out the other end with broken bones and all sorts.”

“Can’t you shrink your trunks like Mrs Weasley shrunk our parcels from Diagon Alley?” Hadrian asked.

“Yes, and no,” Percy answered. “You can shrink the trunk, but it doesn’t automatically shrink everything inside the trunk. You have to shrink everything individually. That’s fine for a dozen books on a shopping trip. But for all your books, all your clothes, shoes, quills, and so on? It’d be extremely tedious, as well as magically fatiguing, even to do it for a single person. To do it for all of us? Impossible. We’d need a ministry department.”

“So how do students get to Kings Cross if their parents don’t have a car?”

“They can book a portkey, but there’s a fee. There is side-along Apparition, though that isn’t really recommended for young children. There are muggle forms of transport that you probably know all about - buses and trains and taxis. And finally, there’s the worst one of all, that we all used before Dad got the car - the Knight Bus.”

The twins shuddered dramatically. Ginny said, “I thought it was fun.”

“What’s the Knight Bus?” Hadrian asked.

All the kids except Luna-bell tried to talk at once, trying to explain the Knight Bus to him. Then the twins started demonstrating how the Knight Bus flung people around by scooping Luna-bell up and flinging her around, making her laugh. 

“Only instead of an incredibly handsome man to catch you, you just go SPLAT against the window, like this!” Fred (or George) said, and (gently) smooshed Luna-bell against the window on his side. 

**Author's Note:**

> Join us at the Writer's Den Discord, a friendly chat of writers, readers, betas and friends. <https://discord.gg/G77FbMT>


End file.
